Entrepreneur in Residence Mentor Program

The Adams Center for Entrepreneurship is proud to be able to offer our students a unique experience through our Mentor Program, either by partnering them with Entrepreneur’s in Residence or a Mentor Specialist. The Mentor Program plan will serve as a framework and roadmap to identify priorities and designates roles, responsibilities, and criteria for meeting those priorities. These mentors may be FAU alumni, highly experienced entrepreneurs, investors, or executives. The program plan will provide a systematic process for participants to carry out in order for both the mentor and mentee to receive beneficial relationships.

The major function of the mentoring program is to promote the mentee’s development in specific areas which are outlined from the application process and to facilitate successful completion of the program. 

For students, the mentorship program provides an opportunity to seek “real-world” advice and feedback on startup business ideas, The FAU Adams Center for Entrepreneurship Business Plan Competition and other collegiate competitions that are available, or to launch a new venture. For students who are already in the process of starting or have already started a business, the mentorship program can provide guidance about operating and growing a business.

For our EIRs and Mentor Specialists, the program provides an opportunity to meet and interact with innovative and passionate students.  This allows you to guide students in evaluating their ideas and concepts, to share stories of your successes within your own experiences and open doors for students that would not normally be available to them.

Students: The Entrepreneurship Mentor Program may be right for you if:

• You have an innovative idea for a new venture and would like an experienced entrepreneur to provide feedback to help you determine if the idea is viable, as well as receive guidance on how you can do research and take other actions to proceed.
• You are developing a business idea and have legal and/ or accounting questions and would like general advice on these issues.
• You have already launched a startup, and seek guidance and feedback on how to get your venture to the next level
• You are curious about entrepreneurship, and would like to speak to a successful entrepreneur about what’s involved.
   

The Adams Center for Entrepreneurship mentor program will accomplish the following: 

• Skills enhancement 
• Organization development and culture change
• Professional identity 
• Career development
• Leadership and Management development 
• Education support
• Networking
• Customer service
• Recruitment
• Time Management

Interested in Becoming a Mentor?    

Mentor Application 

Interested in the Mentor Program?   

Student Mentee Application

GET GUIDANCE FROM MENTORS LIKE THESE:

Terence Bentley

Throughout a twenty year career in acquisitions and divestitures, Terence Bentley has managed or closed over 40 transactions, ranging from VC investments to individual transactions up to $3 billion, for Automatic Data Processing, Lucent Technologies, Siemens USA and others. These transactions included applications services, network software, fiber optics, network equipment, LAN switching systems, semiconductors, aerospace components, and manufacturing technology. He has served as VP Marketing for a fiber optic LAN startup, and is currently involved in several emerging technology
energy startups. Currently, he serves as a Mentor for StartupQuest, and has led teams to Business Plan wins in these events. He’s considered hundreds of business plans during his career.

Bentley is active in the technology corporate development community, having co-founded the New Jersey chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth and served on the Boards of ACG’s New York and New Jersey chapters. He has delivered seminars on Corporate Development to diverse audiences, including the MBA programs at NYU-Stern and Wharton. Terence has served on industry panels and participated in numerous speaking engagements. He has been published in Corporate Dealmaker and M&A magazine, and is a twenty-year member of the IEEE. In 1998, he became a co-founder, investor, and board member of
Starlight Resources, a successful energy company sold in 2006 to a private equity investor.

Prior to entering corporate development, he developed a practical understanding of corporate operations as a product
manager, delivering more than 30 products to market in local and wide area networks, and cable television network systems.
Terence holds an MBA in strategy and finance from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.

Michelle Salas

Michelle Salas founded Lady Green Miami Recycling Co in 2010 with a goal to protect the environment and help people and businesses through waste reduction in our communities. Currently, Lady Green Miami provides waste pickup and recycling services to over 1,000 locations throughout Miami-Dade County. Michelle brings 19 years of management experience, including 11 years of executive management working with top business leaders. Prior to founding Lady Green Miami Recycling, Michelle was part of a successful start-up company that is now a leader in the U.S. for deploying greenhouse gas reduction projects and renewable energy projects. Michelle received a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration in 2007 from Jones College and later pursued her Master’s in Environmental Studies at Florida International University. During her first year in graduate school, Michelle found much inspiration from her professors, peers and education, that she felt it was time to launch her recycling dream. She decided to drop out of grad school and fully invest her time and resources into creating her vision. Understanding the real value in education, Michelle continued to ‘sit’ in classes to learn the material without having to pay the cost of tuition. In Feb 2019, Waste360 announced Michelle as a recipient of the 40 Under 40 Award due to her inspiring and innovative contributions to the waste management and recycling industry.

Devon Cohen

Mr. Cohen has extensive experience in leading accelerated organic growth, corporate acquisition and harvesting businesses for both VC and Fortune 50 companies, including Mercedes-Benz, Merrill Lynch, Ford, KPMG, and HSBC creating over $1 billion in shareholder value. Transitioning from Public Accounting, Mr. Cohen’s first company started with $500k of venture capital and sold to Mercedes-Benz for over $10 million four years later. Following successive growth within the Daimler organization Mr. Cohen grew to lead DaimlerChrysler’s Western Finance operations, responsible for the profitability of a $15 billion commercial and consumer finance portfolio. After being recruited by the President of Ford as CEO of FordDirect he led the growth of Ford’s Dealer Internet operation growing internet sales from 2% of Ford’s sales to over 9%, beating plan 11 consecutive quarters. After moving to Florida Mr. Cohen created a company which raised $7 million of capital, acquired internet marketing companies until ultimately going public and selling to Yahoo for over $200 million. Since then Mr. Cohen has been working in industries as varied as Native American economic development to Commercial Aviation Repair for major Airlines. In addition, Mr. Cohen has been a Board member for Draper Fisher Jurvetson and August Capital Companies.

Jaime Legagneur 

Jaime Legagneur founded her business, Flint Stone Media, as a digital marketing firm before discovering podcasting in 2014 and establishing her first show, Curve the Cube. She began working as a Production Coordinator for the Horse Radio Network in the summer of 2017, learning more of the business of podcasting. With this new foundation, Jaime then refocused her company as a podcast production house, helping other independent podcasters launch shows. In November 2017, she established the Florida Podcast Network, which now boasts five shows - three of which Jaime hosts -  Finding Florida, People of Florida, and Florida Podcasting News. Since then, Jaime has also been the organizer of the Palm Beach Podcasters MeetUp group and the Director of the Wedding Biz Network. She also speaks regularly on a variety of podcast-related topics. Most recently, Jaime earned the privilege of being the first Podcasting Instructor for the Connecticut School of Broadcasting and the recipient of Podfest's 2020 High Achiever Award.  

Craig Davis

Craig Davis is an entrepreneur and business executive with broad experience in all aspects of small business management. Hands on experience with technology, management, sales, marketing (online and offline), and finance including angel funding, VC funding and private equity. Previously, Craig was a member of the CBOE and has been a stock, options and futures trader for over 17 years.

 
Yara Gonsalves

Yara Gonsalves is a strategic business leader and highly credentialed professional who has consistently climbed the corporate ladder in the male-dominated field of general aviation parts and service. Ms. Gonsalves started in the aviation field as a purchasing agent with American
Eagle - providing urgent service and parts to get the aircraft “back in the air.” She continued with Aviall (a retired subsidiary of Boeing) as inside sales for Latin American markets. In 2000,
Gonsalves was promoted and relocated to South Florida as outside sales, quickly advancing to
customer service manager and senior management supervising a 25-member team. Her skills took her to Boeing Global Services where Ms. Gonsalves’ specialized competences earned her the designation of Subject Matter Expert (SME). She was tasked with short term, targeted projects for analysis, review and turnaround efficiencies as a sales operations analyst. She was promoted to business development channel manager responsible for $15 million in individual parts numbers and services. Gonsalves administers two complex global inventory management programs throughout global markets of North America, Brazil, Australia, UK, Norway and Poland. Ms. Gonsalves has experience in many different business sectors and is constantly seeking her next opportunity. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Professional Aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2006 and earned an MBA from Florida Atlantic University where she received a certificate in Big Data Analytics.

Lawrence Kimmelman

Larry Kimmelman - an accomplished retired McDonald’s pioneer Franchisee of 45 years.

My years as a McDonalds Franchisee gave me hands on experience and knowledge in franchisee issues, operations, advertising and marketing, consumer trends and more. Throughout my career I held numerous elected leadership positions representing my fellow operators on Regional, Divisional and National levels.

Over my 45 yrs, I received and was recognized by McDonald Corp and my peers for my restaurants operational achievements and as a Brand Ambassador. One of the highlights is being in Ray Kroc’s book “Grinding It Out”.

The most rewarding part of being a franchisee is being a Mentor and Confidante to my managers and employees thru their personal issues and encouragement on their next steps and future plans.

Bob Nelson

An investor, entrepreneur and executive with 40 years of business experience in the software development, financial and transportation industries;

Angel investments/advisory positions include OrthoCore, Talk2Rep, CallMiner, Shadows in Darkness, MCC, Inc. (Miles Consulting, HugeMagnet & PayPerCloud,) AutoFuse (acquired by ADP), Nexland (acquired by Symantec), Institutional Deposit Corp., EdVerify, Healthwise Travel, Fourbit and Depot86 (eBay’s 10th largest seller);

Founding member of The New World Angels investment group and serves as a member of the Enterprise Florida SBIR/STTR Steering Committee and the Florida Atlantic University Technology Transfer Advisory Team and as one of the finalist judges for the 2011 Cade Prize.

Expert in business plan development and angel investing and its potential impact on your business.

Tom Mersch

Tom Mersch is a Partner in the firm’s Fort Lauderdale Office. Tom has extensive experience in providing advice and guidance on Business Transactions and Data Privacy and Security Matters. In addition, Tom plays a key role in the firm’s marketing and business development efforts.

Tom has over 30 years of experience as an attorney, corporate counsel, entrepreneur and businessman in multiple sectors including information technology, e-Commerce, finance, travel and government.

Hired as the general counsel for a large internet retailer in need of restructure, Tom navigated their business both legally and operationally from near collapse to solid growth. In 2002 Tom founded and funded an online asset recovery services firm that he sold in 2008.

Tom has held influential legal leadership positions with a number of firms, formerly serving as attorney for the Delta Airlines Dream Vacations Program, General Counsel and Vice President of Business Development for UCS, Inc. (a software company that was eventually acquired by SunGard Data Systems) and as President and founder of an internet-based business services outsourcing company with over 300 employees worldwide. For the five years immediately prior to joining Kelley Kronenberg, Tom was General Counsel for Channel IQ a rapidly growing Chicago based “Big Data” software provider for over 300 of the Worlds’ largest manufacturers. Tom was also the managing director of Channel IQ’s Spanish subsidiary.

Tom is a licensed attorney in Florida and Mississippi, earning his JD from the University of Mississippi and his BA from Southern Methodist University.

Tom contributes his time and talents as a founding mentor to Florida Atlantic University’s Tech Runway Accelerator and FAU’s Adams Center for Entrepreneurship. He has advised start-ups and rapidly growing businesses including the past winner of both the FAU and Enterprise Florida Business Plan Competitions. Tom is also a judge for The Cade Innovation Prize competition.

Ronald Rosenzweig

Ronald Rosenzweig is currently a member of the Board of ANADIGICS and was previously Executive Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer for ANADIGICS, a position he held since co-founding the Company in 1985. ANADIGICS designs, manufactures and sells high speed, gallium arsenide (GaAs) analog integrated circuits (ICs) used in wireless and broadband communications applications. ANADIGICS is a NASDAQ listed company.

He is an experienced Chief Executive Officer with a proven track record in directing the process of creating a successful business based on state-of-the-art technology. In addition to ANADIGICS, Mr. Rosenzweig was also a co-founder of Microwave Semiconductor Corporation (MSC). He served as President & CEO
of MSC for 15 years. MSC, a market leader in microwave silicon and GaAs transistors and amplifiers, was a publicly
traded company, which was later acquired by Siemens Corporation.

Mr. Rosenzweig is currently a member of the World President’s Organization (WPO). He is a trustee of the New York Museum of Contemporary Art and Rhizome, an online resource for people who are interested in new media art.

He has served on the Board of Directors of both Quake Technology and the Board of the General Semiconductor Corporation and currently serves on the board of Maxtena, a start-up that develops and manufactures satellite antennas and other wireless communications systems for the government and commercial customers.

He was named in 1994 winner of New Jersey’s Master Entrepreneur of the Year founded by Ernst & Young, and sponsored nationally by Inc. Magazine and Merrill Lynch.

Mr. Rosenzweig also has experience in digital marketing within the fashion industry, and has worked closely with fashion icon Rachel Zoe with her online presence.

Mr. Rosenzweig is a graduate of the City College of New York where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering. He is a former member of the Engineering Advisory Board at his alma mater and a Board of Overseers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Claudio Sorrentino

Entrepreneur, Investor, Mentor, and Executive with over 20 years of business experience in the retail, medical, hospitality, and marketing industries. Guest Speaker on entrepreneurship.

Claudio Sorrentino left the nation’s largest MedSpa to found Body Details and become its Chairman and CEO. Claudio is a born entrepreneur and innovative thinker with broad-based expertise in operations, finance, marketing, leadership, and business development. He has a proven ability to quickly analyze key business drivers and develop strategies to grow the bottom-line. He has more than 21 years of leadership, marketing, sales and hospitality experience and 12 years of medical industry experience. Mr. Sorrentino graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a dual major Bachelor’s degree. Body Details is currently the largest provider of cosmetic laser services in Southeast Florida.

Contact Us

Phone: (561) 297-3654
Email: adamscenter@fau.edu
Map: DS 87 (201)